Yo-Yo Ma, Philadelphia Orchestra at their best on opening night

The Philadelphia Orchestra's opening night Wednesday at Saratoga Performing Arts Center was all a music lover could want -- a gift of ensemble sound that simply can't be found in a recording.

The lawn was packed on this steamy night, and the audience filled all but the far side seats in the amphitheater.

Maestro Charles Dutoit gave the downbeat for "The Star-Spangled Banner" while moving across the stage toward the podium.

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Each year on the orchestra's opening night, I am struck by the sight of SPAC's audience on its feet, singing our national anthem.

Most of these concertgoers actually know the words and sing them as this world- renowned orchestra dangles those dotted notes as they were intended, hanging like fading rockets in the air.

The evening's program opened with Strauss' "Don Juan," featuring a gorgeous oboe solo played by Peter Smith.

Dominating the music in this work is a heroic theme played by French horns, and on this night the Philadelphia Orchestra's horn section simply rocked. I've never heard better.

Yo-Yo Ma was soloist for the evening, playing Elgar's heart-wrenching Cello Concerto, wringing emotion from every phrase, alternately cradling his instrument and moving back to let it speak for itself.

Thinking back, I can't recall Ma performing this work at SPAC in the 17 years I have reviewed performances there, although he certainly has played it in other venues, and did so just this past Sunday at Tanglewood with Maestro Dutoit leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

At SPAC, Ma simply immersed himself in the music of the players around him. The violas gently sang the familiar first theme, the cellos joined into its development and then Ma took over, bringing it into a nearly tangible substance.

Dutoit had the orchestra right there in punctuation behind Ma, effortlessly anticipating his soloist.

With such gorgeous music played by an expert like Ma, it's easy to forget just how technically demanding this work is. Ma played a hand-cramping, seemingly endless tremolo (quick, short bow movements) while the notes built to a climax of harmonics. His fingers always remember where they're going, and get there perfectly.

Moving through depths of despair and sadness and hopeful light sections, the concerto ended triumphantly, and Ma basked in applause and multiple curtain calls.

Closing the program, Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" was a showcase: an opportunity to see the orchestra as the team that it is, and the layers of sound-making that go into the final product.

This is where SPAC's video monitors prove their worth, offering close-ups of percussionists pounding on drums and banging gongs, and of violinists' heads bobbing with the heavy, heady rhythm.

Subtitled "Pictures of Pagan Russia," the original ballet for which Stravinsky wrote this music, the work is about ritual dances culminating in the sacrifice of the "chosen one" in order "to propitiate the god of Spring."

The composer wasn't shy in orchestrating the music, and the resulting excess was thrilling, organic and essential.

A piccolo shrieks; a contrabassoon wails; brass warns; strings stalk, all while timpani pounds and pushes the music toward the ultimate sacrifice.

In the hands of Maestro Dutoit, the Philadelphia Orchestra moved the earth Wednesday with Stravinsky's music.

The Philadelphia Orchestra performs "Peter and the Wolf" with Alec Baldwin narrating at